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Lost and Found: American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive
directed by John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Mabel Normand etc.
USA 1914 -
1927
This 3-1/4 hour DVD celebrates the largest international
collaboration in decades to preserve and present American films found
abroad. It draws from an extraordinary cache of nitrate prints that had
been safeguarded in New Zealand and virtually unseen in decades. Through
a partnership between the New Zealand Film Archive and American film
archives, the NFPF arranged for 176 films to be shipped to the United
States for preservation to 35mm film. Treasures New Zealand
brings some of these major discoveries to DVD. None of the films have
been presented before on video; in fact, none were even thought to exist
just four years ago. Treasures New Zealand not only resurrects lost works by major directors—John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and Mabel Normand—but also samples the variety of American pictures exported abroad and saved through this project. Industrial films, news stories, cartoons, travelogues, serial episodes, previews, comedies—Treasures New Zealand samples them all. The line-up features:
That films lost in the United States came to be found 7,000 miles away speaks volumes about the international popularity of American movies from the very start. By 1926, America made 90% of all commercial pictures screened around the world. When distributors sent prints abroad, they expected that theatrical prints would be shipped back or destroyed at the end of their run. In New Zealand, a last stop on the exhibition circuit, some prints fell into the hands of eager collectors and ended up at the NZFA. Today hundreds of American movies from the silent era that were not saved in the U.S. survive abroad. The Treasures New Zealand films can be shared today thanks to the stewardship of the New Zealanders, the preservation work directed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the contributions of hundreds of donors. The National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Argyros Family Foundation underwrote the production. Net proceeds will support further film preservation. So let’s savor the discoveries, giving a round of applause to the New Zealand Film Archive for sharing its treasures and the American archives for preserving them, and hope that this exciting collaboration spearheaded by the NFPF blazes the trail for many more to come. |
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DVD Review: Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC
CLICK logos to order |
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Distribution | Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC |
Audio | Silent (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) |
Time | 3:16:24 |
Intertitles | English |
Features |
Release Information: DVD Production: Image Entertainment Aspect
Ratio: Edition Details:
DVD Release Date: September 24th, 2013 |
Comments: |
It has been a while
but we get another new 'Treasures..." package and it is
always a pleasure to venture into these fantastically old film archives. There
is something thrilling to be privy to own such a collection of the primordial soup of the medium of film.... for,
previously, lost works. We get a dozen films totaling over 3 1/4 hours.
The 50-page book (fitting in
the transparent keep case) is the 'programme notes' for the films that
are being shown. Here are contained all the details you might want to be
aware of before, or after, indulging in one of the films. Much can also
be accessed via text screen from each menu.
The image often looks quite
impressive with only severe damage being hardly ever seen except on some
of the title cards on "White Shadow". The aspect ratio is
consistent at 1.33:1.
Menu navigation is easy
allowing you to access the next of previous film or any chapter menus or
ex. a brief piece on Donald Sosin's music of the 1927 "Upstream".
All the films are presented
with two-track audio. The sound is acceptable and even quite refreshing
on the newly recorded effort. There
are no subtitles but all inter-titles are in English.
For historical film-students keen on these packages-this
is pure fun - educational and a window into the past |
Associated Reading (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)
Metropolis (Bfi Film Classics, 54) by Thomas Elsaesser |
Movie Posters of the Silent Film Era To Color by Rex Schneider, Christopher Buchman |
American Film Cycles: The Silent Era (Bibliographies
and Indexes in the Performing Arts) by Larry Langman |
Family Secrets: The Feature Films of D. W. Griffith by Michael Allen |
The First Female Stars : Women of the Silent Era by David W. Menefee |
Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical
Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses by Anthony Slide |
The Silent Cinema Reader by Lee Grieveson, Peter Kramer |
Silent Stars Speak: Interviews With Twelve Cinema
Pioneers by Tony Villecco |
Haunted Screen Expressionism in the German Cinema by Lotte Eisner |
DVD Menu Sample
Sample Titles
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Sample Screen Captures